Great Power Military Intervention
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this graduate-level political science course examining great and middle power military interventions into civil wars from the 1990s onward, drawing on cases that fall outside traditional definitions of vital national interest. The syllabus works through interventions in the Balkans, Africa, and elsewhere to test what these decisions reveal about unipolarity, the erosion of state sovereignty, the security effects of globalization, and the changing character of Western military power. Materials include a full reading list of scholarly articles and case studies, session-by-session topics, and written assignments, though there are no video lectures. The course is built for advanced students already familiar with international relations theory, and it treats intervention as a puzzle rather than a policy recommendation, asking why states with no obvious vital stake still choose to send troops into other countries' wars. All materials are free through MIT OpenCourseWare under a Creative Commons license, with no certificate offered.